First and foremost, this is my first fanpost.  Also please excuse my writing, it definitely is not as good as a lot of writers on here.

Unless you've been living under a rock, we all have heard about the recent takeover of Strikeforce by the UFC.  I, for one, believe a UFC monopoly of the MMA world is bad for the fans, the athletes, and the sport of MMA. 

For the next few years, a UFC monopoly of top level MMA is practically guaranteed.  Before the takeover, Strikeforce and JMMA were the next two threats to attracting top talent. 

Strikeforce, well we know what happened and I can only believe that JMMA will soon collapse under its own will.  With Sengoku losing its major sponsor, Dream owing money to fighters for services years in the past, the prognosis for JMMA was already bleak.  Now throw in the earthquake and several cancelled MMA events.  Percentages of money spent on last weekend's planned events are lost for sure, not to mention future expenses, emotional toils from the earthquake.  It may also be months before another event may be take place.

I can also only imagine that a lot of Japanese citizens will have lost a lot financially and emotionally from this earthquake.  Will the Japanese want to, or even be able to afford going to an MMA event? 

So, from my point of view, the UFC will now hold unprecedented access to top ranked fighters and be able to control their contracts. 

Obviously this is a concern for fighters.  They now hold less leverage in their negotiations resulting in lower value contracts. 

What does this mean for the sport and the fans of MMA?

Sure in the short run, the fans may get to see their "dream fights".  The match ups will be great; it will be an exciting time for MMA.

What about the long run?  Salaries will be smaller, attracting less and less top athletes to the sport of MMA.

I believe that MMA, currently, houses athletes with less athletic ability than other popular sports such as basketball, soccer, football, baseball.  Why?  The money is there.  It's as simple as 2 + 2.  Why go into MMA when you can make 6 million a year playing hockey, 25million a year playing baseball, and a ton more playing soccer.

Why is this bad for the fans and the sport?

Well, imagine a UFC full of GSPs.  I, for one, think its beautiful to watch a guy with incredible athletic ability couple with immense MMA skills execute perfect technique after perfect technique.  Simply breathtaking

Imagine more Jon Jones, more Jose Aldos.   Imagine if those guys were the norm, and the champions were yet even better.  This excites me.  For this to happen, MMA needs to be able to attract the top athletes of this world.

I also think more fighters like GSP and Jon Jones go a huge way in legitimizing this sport and making it more popular.  A guy like GSP, well no doubt a great ambassador.  A class act.  Great for making this sport more professional.  A guy like Jon Jones?  well just simply great to watch.  Popularity will soar through the roof. 

Sure we will be getting more GSPs in the present state of MMA, but I believe that we would get a much higher number with a larger number of competitive promotions.

This sport needs to grow, not stifled by a UFC monopoly.  This is why I adamantly supported Strikeforce, Dream, Bellator, Sengoku.

Let me know what y'all think below!